@ San Carlos, CA
January 2021
A battered Hiller helicopter faces one of its last sunsets as a fast food restaurant play area. After the closure of the restaurant, the UH-12 was donated back to the Hiller Aviation Museum and has since moved this aircraft to the museum for a overdue restoration. First flown in 1948, the Hiller Model 360 was designated by the company as the UH-12 (“UH” for United Helicopters). In 1949, the UH-12 would become the first helicopter to make a transcontinental flight from California to New York. The UH-12 used Hiller’s “Rotor-Matic” cyclic control system, with two small servo rotor paddles offset 90 degrees to the main rotor blades. The paddles were attached to the control column, so that movement of the column would cause the pitch of the servo paddles to change, loading the main rotor blade so that the desired cyclic changes to the rotor occurred.
This prototype five-seat E5 model was one of the final versions developed, powered by a 340hp Lycoming VO-540 piston engine. In 1995 there was a failed effort by an investment group to manufacture turbine-engined UH-12E5 and E3 helicopters. Fuji X-Pro2 w/18-135mm.
